2017 Documented Life Project: March

March-2

Hello! Sharing my March 2017 Documented Life Project spreads today! This page actually started out with a magazine page with my favorite colors. What I wanted to do with it didn't turn out quite right, so I just covered it up with a light smear of gesso and some stenciling with one of my favorite stencils. The little scrap of fabric message was sitting on my work table and fit perfectly! This week was the week of our State Basketball Tournament, held in Ocala, so I was able to spend some time with my dear friends Marjorie and Vanessa, shown in the photo on the right with me. My job requires a ton of travel, so it's nice to be able to catch up friends when I'm on the road!

March-3

March-4

This next page also started with a pretty page from a magazine. I tend to find my prettiest magazine pages in Better Homes and Gardens and Good Housekeeping and keep a stack of them on my worktable both for tear outs and to use for gluing so I don't get glue all over my workspace. I cut that big "Go Ahead, Lose Yourself" on the calendar side out of an Ulta Beauty bag. My girls have started marching band this year, and Olivia is on the drill team. Don't even get me started on the hair and make up requirements for drill team.... We'll just say it's been an education for all of us! This week included Spring Break, so we had a nice quiet week at Home in Jacksonville. It was a little rainy and chilly, but that was just fine. We were Home.

March-5

March-6

Well, clearly, I was on a "pairs of two" kick in March. This page started out with rubbing some random paint on with my fingers (deep down, I will always be a finger-painter...), and then I added some stamping, a bit of collage work, and pen work. This page came together really quickly, which is important for me as there is never enough time to devote to my create playtime. This week included three of my favorite things: my weekly meeting with my two Chi Omega advisees, Mack and Maddie; our monthly Chi Omega advisory board meeting; and an afternoon at the shelter. As harried as things get with work, it's been so important to my sanity to make time for those outside of work activities that make my heart happy. That's my family, my "big girls," and my shelter volunteering! And of course, playing in my art studio!

March-7

March-8

This was another very quick page. I used some of my underpapers, rubbed a little more paint on them, painted some random sweet little flowers with my fingers and added in a card Sarah made. 5 is my lucky number. On the back side of the card, Sarah wrote "Unicorns are real." Yep, they are. This week really sums up a week in the life for me. Moe's Monday is a tradition for us; we go just about every Monday unless I'm out of town for work (extreme queso addiction here). Shelter Tuesday afternoon. Chi O meeting on Wednesday. Out of town for our state Brain Bowl Tournament over at Gulf Coast State College in Panama City Thursday and Friday.  And then I participated in the Springtime Tallahassee Arts Jubilee on Saturday. Busy week, but pretty average week!

March-9

March-11

I wrapped up March with this sweet little page. The background was a piece I've had laying around for a couple years, the background for some owl paintings from a class the redheads and I were taking online that I finally put it to use! Clearly, the owl did not make the cut. :-) The bird is a stencil I traced on an old dictionary page and added some color to, and the flowers are a stamp from Roben-Marie Smith.

Thanks so much for stopping in. Our world has been a little upside down the past week or two since we had quite a bit of damage to our Home in Jacksonville courtesy of Hurricane Irma. We had about a foot of water in on the ground floor and some damage to our dock and roof. We had a tree in the roof last year courtesy of Hurricane Matthew, so we're counting our blessings! It could have been worse! The hubs has been over there handling clean up while the redheads and I have been juggling work and school in Tallahassee. Continued prayers for all who have been affected by this very active, devastating hurricane season. It's been a rough one!

To see more of my 2017 Documented Life Project, click here. For 2016, here; for 2015, here; and for 2014, here. Thanks to the ladies at Art to the 5th for creating this project and to my sweet friend Roben-Marie for introducing me to them and all the constant inspiration she provides.

Best Shot Monday: Meet Kay and Tilt...Again

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If you volunteer at a municipal shelter long enough, you invariably see a dog come back through the system. We were home in Jacksonville for the long Labor Day weekend, so I spent some time at my home shelter photographing the pups this morning. See that beautiful girl above? This is Kay ... today. I first photographed her four years ago and actually blogged about her then because she broke my heart. So when I saw her today, with the photo I took of her four years ago on her kennel card, my heart sank. I took her out and I don't know if she actually remembered me (I did spend quite a bit of time with her back then) or if it was just her innate incredibly sweet and loving nature, but she snuggled up to me just like an old friend. Praying that a very sweet family finds this very sweet girl very soon.

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And then there's this guy. Meet Tilt ... today. I first photographed and blogged about him five years ago, and with that little tilt of the head, he is unmistakable. He's much bigger these days, but he's still such a fun loving fella. Both Kay and Tilt came back into the shelter as strays. At one time, they had homes. Who knows what's happened in their lives between then and now. Prayers they get a new fresh start very soon! They are both available for adoption at Jacksonville's Animal Care and Protective Services. 

I shared a post on Facebook several weeks ago written by a shelter tech about the question she and all of us who spend a lot of time volunteering in animal shelters hear often: "Is this a kill shelter?" Her post was so well written and really got to the heart of the matter of animal sheltering. The truth is, even "no-kill" shelters have to put animals down, but in sheltering, we refer to it as what it is: humanely euthanizing. The numbers vary slightly around the country, but for the most part, to earn no-kill status means that 90% of the animals that come through your doors walk back out.  That 10% is there for a reason. Some animals are too sick to be saved, and it's far more humane to release them from their sickness. And frankly, some animals are simply too dangerous to be safely adopted out.  I'm not sharing this because I think Kay or Tilt might face this fate, not at all. They are both highly adoptable and will hopefully meet their new families very soon. I share this to try to spread understanding.  It makes me so sad to see people say they won't support a large municipal shelter or even a small rural municipal shelter because they believe those places "kill" animals.  Please take some time to learn and understand what that phrase means.  Even your humane societies humanely euthanize animals at times, because it's simply the right thing to do, for the animal or for the safety of the public. Think about your own family pet.  Have you ever had to euthanize a pet?  I know I have, and I think most people who have ever loved numerous animals have been faced with that painful decision.  But you knew it was the best thing to do for your pet.

So, please, support your municipal animal shelter. That shelter is the one charged with taking in every animal that comes their way, be it a stray, owner surrender, cruelty case, confiscation, you name it, they take them all.  Support them, either by volunteering your time, fostering, adopting, or donating funds to the organizations that raise funds for them.   Help make a difference.  They need you.